Hi all,
i am looking at replacing my car soon and was thinking about getting a diesel with a auto box. Just wondered what people think of this decision. Also which vehicles are worth taking a look at. I was looking for something up to about £6k. So please no comments like buy a brand new merc its only £30k cos there is no way i can afford to buy it even if i sold myself /
many thanks.
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Be careful on this purchase. I've had a 99 Passat tdi auto for over three years and it's been pretty good. It's got 142K on the clock and I do around 20K pa - so far no headaches. It's not the swiftest car but I can cruise at 80 on the MWay and get 45-50 mpg on a good run so all round I'm happy with it.
Make sure you've got FSH and in particular that the transmission has been serviced regularly. Beware of "lifetime" fills of ATF - I had mine done today for the first time in 142K but the technician said the transmission looked fine. Had I known about this I'd have got it done immediately when I bought it. VW claim it doesn't need doing as it's "lifetime" fluid but given how much I use it £100 expense every 3-4 years doesn't sound too high.
Best of luck...
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You'll have to search quite a bit to find a diesel auto - not that many of them about unless you go for something like a BMW or a Merc.
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Make sure you can stand the noise.
The droning of a 4-cylinder diesel auto can be very wearing, much more so than the equivalent manual. I must be one of the few Mercedes drivers (B200 CDI auto) who wishes he'd gone for a Skoda.
Skoda's DSG option is too recent to fit your budget - I think Citroen have done diesel automatics for some time and there might be something to suit you there.
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Peugeot 607 if you want acres of space and lots of toys. 6 on Autotrader under 6k.
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Citroen started doing diesel automatics years ago (starting with the BX?), and more recently Saab and Volvo also do them, but probably for not less than £12k used...
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We have a had C5 2.2 HDI auto for three and a half years (it is 5 years old now) and the transmission is fine. The only downside, as far as I am concerned, is that it is only a four speed box and the engine will not run happily below 50 mph in 4th gear, which does affect the fuel economy if you are running in traffic on single carriageways, where a lot of people won't exceed 45 mph. Other than that, it changes up a bit too soon when it is cold but when warm it is fine. The changes are smooth and quick, as they are in the optional tiptronic mode.
The above comment about 4 cylinder diesels droning doesn't apply to the HDI engine either, it being very quiet and smooth. Fuel economy has been around 35 to 37 mpg.
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''Droning of 4 cylinder diesels ?'' I have to disagree and say that it is more like an agreeable bubbling, when you are driving it is almost inaudlble. I listen to alot of classical music when driving and have never experienced the engine note interfering.
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Make sure you can stand the noise. The droning of a 4-cylinder diesel auto can be very wearing, much more so than the equivalent manual. I must be one of the few Mercedes drivers (B200 CDI auto) who wishes he'd gone for a Skoda.
I think that drone is more likely the damned CVT 'box than the engine
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For your six grand you could get a reasonable C class Merc diesel auto if you look very carefully in the private ads and the local outlets. Not the main dealers as they charge top whack for their cars and give miserable PX . I am on my 2nd C class of your preferred specifications and would recommend one with a turbo as the non turbo is a bit slow getting away. You get a good 40mpg plus and a motor that with TLC goes on and on.
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Boxsterboy, you could well be right. The CVT makes the engine rev more than you would with a manual when setting off from rest, and perhaps more than a covnentional automatic.
The Audi I had before had CVT but it was a 2.5 V6 so much quieter.
However, I test-drove an Octavia 2.0 TDi with the DSG gearbox and that was a lot quieter than the Mercedes. Hence my earlier comment about wishing I'd gone for the Skoda.
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Try looking for a VW Golf Diesel Auto if you dont want anything too big. Pre-Chrysler Merc C-Class diesels are very nice if not that fast.
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I'd have thought there'd be plenty of Volvo S60 D5 autos out there within your price range.
You won't get the aforementioned 4 cylinder diesel drone out of them either. They're 5 pot engines and they have a very distinctive growl.
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Kia Sedona ? loads of 'em - fully spec too.
Papho
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